Technical Demo Problems

Recently I joined a group of people where one person tried to connect a computer tablet to a large-screen television for a presentation. We all took our seats while the person tried to get things connected but it took awhile. I have been in that situation many times and the one thing I discovered is that if I am alone, I have a much better chance of getting things to work. When there is a crows present, I can't figure it out.

Seeing the struggle, I offered to go get a cable to directly connect the tablet to the screen. I walked out of the room and that is all it took for the presenter to figure things out. Once that happened, another person came to find me to let me know that things worked and we could begin.

Sometimes having someone offer to help is all it takes to figure things out on your own. When I find myself in a similar situation, I get distracted by all of the people in the room and forget even the simplest technical details. I have to consciously tell myself to take a breath and think through the problem. Then I will remember a simple detail that causes the trouble to disappear and technology to start working again. Hopefully this trick will work for you should you find yourself trying to troubleshoot something with distractions. 

A Dedicated E-Reader

One of my Christmas gifts from my wife was a Kindle Fire or E-Reader. It is something I wanted and appreciate her getting it for me. On Monday I headed to California and used it instead of bringing a number of books and other reading material. I have to say that I really appreciated having a small electronic book. Had I brought paper copies, I would have added a lot of weight.

My wife and I are preparing to hike Mt. Rainier in July and the recommended training guide can be found in a book called "Training for the Uphill Athlete." My wife purchased the Kindle version of the book and because our Amazon accounts are linked, I also have access to it. It is a rather hefty book and I am glad I didn't have to carry the paper copy. I started reading the book while waiting to depart Salt Lake and made great progress before even getting on my flight. I continued reading while headed to Los Angeles. Then I read on the way back home. I am now about half way through and have enjoyed the experience.

While in Los Angeles I had some other personal reading that I like to do at breakfast. I brought my e-reader to the hotel buffet and enjoyed a leisurely pace while I ate and read. I liked not having to carry a second book with me.

Now there is a problem with using an e-reader before bed. The Kindle Fire is really a small Android tablet and I am concerned about blue light keeping me up and making it difficult to sleep. While reading on the flight home, the screen seemed to almost have an e-paper look to it. This leads me to believe that the device shouldn't keep me up any more than reading a book. I will have to do some more testing though.

I feel like I had a successful first trip with my Kindle and look forward to using it more often. Any time you can cut down on the stuff you need to bring on a trip, you should. I always try to carry just a small computer bag and a small backpack. If I could condense everything down to a single bag, I would. The Kindle is a small step towards that direction.

My New Toy: An HP Chromebook 11 G5

Last week I received a package in the mail at work that contained a laptop sleeve. Included with it was a note from a vendor that told me how to get a Chromebook that fits perfectly in the sleeve. I thought about not contacting them because I knew it would involve a sales call. Then they guys around me at work actually thought talking to this vendor would be well worth our time. I submitted my information and soon received an e-mail from our sales representative. It is someone that I have had frequent contact with and so we set up a meeting to talk and catch up. That meeting happened yesterday and actually went very well.

I got home late last night from the Bay Area and my HP Chromebook 11 G5 was waiting for me on my desk. This morning I pulled it out and started playing with it. In order to use the device, you need to connect it to the Internet. That didn't take too long. Next I pulled up YouTube and played a video of one of my favorite songs. The speakers are not too bad considering the size of this very inexpensive device. Next I did a search to see what you can do with a Chromebook.

Over a decade ago I worked for an Oracle spin-off called Network Computer that later changed its name to Liberate Technologies. We created a Network Computer which is exactly what a Chromebook is now. If only we had continued refining our idea instead of going after the set-top box market, the company might still be around.

I have spent about an hour playing with this very functional device and think it is well worth the price I paid for it (free). If you are someone that uses your computer to read e-mail and surf the web, a Chromebook is a very inexpensive option with mine having a suggested price of around $200. I actually like it more than my Samsung tablet I got for free several years ago. Part of that is because of the keyboard included with the device. I also prefer using a mouse over a touchscreen. I hate fingerprints on my screen.

So would I run out and get a Chromebook? No, but only because I have a laptop that I don't mind carrying around. So what am I going to do with this free gift? I am going to put it in my kitchen for when my wife wants to look up recipes or one of the kids wants to surf the net. It is replacing a very old desktop computer that stopped working recently. I expect it will work quite well.

Limit Smartphone, Laptop, and Tablet Usage

Yesterday I got some disturbing news. My oldest daughter recently was hired for a new job but only lasted 4 days. My wife and I assumed there were budget issues and our daughter was let go because of them. Then my wife visited someone associated with the company, which is where my daughter originally found out about the job in the first place. According to our friend, our daughter was let go because of not paying attention in the new hire training because she was spending time on her smartphone. Naturally there are two sides to every story and so my wife called our daughter to see if there was any truth to it. Of course my daughter didn't see it that way as she explained that "she wasn't using her phone any more than anyone else in the training." When I heard that, a buzzer in my head went off, followed by the phrase, "Wrong answer!"

While there may be other reasons why my daughter was let go from her job, her response shows that we could all use a little education on smartphone etiquette. Meetings and training classes can get boring. Trust me, I spend way too much time in them and I am often looking for something else to do. However I find that when I do pull out my phone is exactly the time that I miss some important information that often needs to be repeated and makes an already long meeting last even longer. That means I am being rude to the presenter as well as everyone else in the meeting.

I was ruminating over this thought today when I opened up one of my wife's health magazines and came across an article about how being glued to your gadgets can be bad for you. Northwestern University found that people who were exposed to blue light right before or during dinner felt an increase in hunger. For those that don't know, blue light is the type of light emitted by smartphones, tablets, and laptops. What this means is that our little gadgets are making us more hungry than we really are. No wonder I want to snack every time I sit in front of my laptop.

One anecdotal story does not make a trend but I imagine there are a number of missed opportunities because of being glued to our electronic gadgets. This coupled with the fact that our devices are making us hungrier ought to cause us to pause and think about it before we use them.

New Favorite Technology

This morning I was the perfect husband and brought my wife to the doctor's office for a routine screening. They sedated her for the procedure and I was needed simply to drive her home afterwards. Fortunately I came prepared for my stay in the doctor's waiting room. I brought my laptop and both of my mobile phones. I also brought one more seriously needed piece of technology that has recently become quite beloved.

We got to the doctor's office and my wife filled out a bunch of paperwork. I sat next to her and kept glancing over at the television. I have to admit that I have not watched any television in the past several months. Furthermore I think you can count in decades the last time I have watched day-time television. The only word that comes to mind is, "Garbage." Every time I would look over at the Today show with Kathy Lee, my stomach would churn and my mind would ask, "Isn't it time for her to retire and go away?" Unfortunately the sound was up and I couldn't help continuously glancing over and getting nauseated.

I thought about bringing my laptop to the doctor's office and rather than just pulling it out of my computer bag, I brought my whole bag. In it was my new favorite technology: earplugs. I actually have 3 different sets in my bag. The first is a set of closed-foam plugs that Hampton Inn's started giving away for free. That is what I used today and I was glad I had them. Once I put them in, I could work on my laptop and got some important management tasks done.

The other two sets of earplugs I carry are not really "earplugs." They are two different kinds of headphones. The first is a set of ear buds that came with one of my tablet computers. They are great in that I can play music through them and they also do a fairly nice job of limiting outside noise. The other set of headphones are some more expensive over-the-ear kind that also have a noise cancelling button. Simply put them on, flip a switch, and about 90% of outside noise just goes away.

I enjoy all three sets of ear plugs I carry. Sure I could have used any of them to drown out distractions and get some work done today. I didn't want to listen to music and so the simple foam earplugs worked. Sometimes simple is all you need.

Using My Tablet Computer

After weeks and months of not using my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, I picked it up over the past weekend and started using it for a bit of reading before bed. My preferred reading format is real paper but it has its limitations. As I had a lot of airplane time over the past several weeks, I carried James Mitchner's first novel, Tales of the South Pacific, with me. Anyone who has seen the musical South Pacific is familiar with some of the stories found in the book as that is where they come from.

I am inspired by a good historical novel and enjoy reading Mitchner for this reason. Tales of the South Pacific is about the Pacific theater of World War II. When I finished the novel, I couldn't help but wonder how much of it was based on actual events. It seems that my history classes in high school spent all of their time on the birth of the nation and lacked much depth to anything after the Revolutionary War. Most of my knowledge of World War II comes from living in France and watching various movies like Pearl Harbor, Midway, Unbroken, and The Monuments Men.

In an effort to learn more about the Pacific theater of World War II, I pulled out my Samsung tablet and have been using it to look up timelines and various historical facts. It has proven rather insightful and interesting. I have enjoyed not having a laptop on my chest while trying to read in bed and have rediscovered that tablet computers do have something to offer even an old dinosaur like me.

Smart House Blues

Last week I went on an eight-day ski trip in Colorado with a couple of guys that frequently come to visit me at Snowbird in Utah. I have listened to their stories of skiing endless powder at Wolf Creek and so I decided to join them this year. They picked me up at the Denver airport and we proceeded to drive for our first night of lodging. John drove while Jim sat in the front passenger seat and I hung out in the back.

John is owner of a high-tech company in the Chicago area and loves technologies. He brought no fewer than 2 tablets, 2 smartphones, and a laptop computer complete with all of the cables and wires one would need to connect everything together. I wasn't in the car for more than 30 minutes before John's wife called about a problem with the TV. He was driving and couldn't really help her and so the call was quick. There were several more calls before we got to our destination.

The next morning we were up early to do some skiing and there were more calls related to the TV not working. Jim kept telling John to log into one of the cameras he has in his office and watch what his wife was doing. That would have to wait until we were back at the condo. Fortunately John was able to figure out the problem and I thought we were done with "fix-it" calls from his wife. Nope, as soon as the TV was fixed, there was a beeping noise coming from behind the furnace. Jim thought it was because the smoke alarm battery needed to be replace. After a dozen phone calls from the chairlift throughout the day, we discovered it was actually a low battery in a moisture sensor.

John has a "smart house" that is digitally connected to numerous sensors and alleged time-saving devices. Each device has a purpose that has proved its worth. Unfortunately for us, John never trained his wife on any of it and we dealt with constant calls about problems, beeps, and alarms throughout our trip. It sort of made me glad that my house is incredibly simple and the only real home automation I have is a computer-controlled thermostat that my wife is more than capable of handling. I had a great trip and only got calls from my wife asking about the skiing.

Christmas Music

This year I have tried to be a bit more proactive when it comes to helping my wife set up all of the Christmas decorations. Yesterday we put up the outside Christmas lights and today we put up the Christmas tree. As we were working today, my wife wanted to listen to Christmas music.

In the past my wife has kept a ton of Christmas music on her iPhone. For some reason she took it off and so she left it up to me to figure out how to get some Holiday music going while we put up the tree. I thought about setting up a Christmas station on Pandora. However that would have required finding speakers for my tablet or smartphone and so I pulled out an old boom-box with a built-in CD player. My wife then located about 20 Christmas CDs and we put one in.

It worked quite well and we enjoyed the music for about 40 minutes. Then the music stopped. We were still working on decorating and so my wife changed CDs and we kept going. Once again we were good, but only for about 40 minutes. It took us several hours to set things up and the music helped speed the process along. The only problem was that it felt like we were constantly changing CDs.

I'm not sure what is more annoying: listening to commercials every few songs that come with the free version of Pandora or having to swap out CDs every 40 minutes or so. Ultimately I decided that MP3 players like the iPod have really spoiled me and it is tough to go back to older music formats like CDs.

Reading the Sunday Newspaper

Last night I had the option of sitting down and watching a movie with my wife or reading a book while she read the Sunday paper. I watched a movie with my wife the previous two nights and so I opted to sit down and read a book. I am glad I did as it was very relaxing and enjoyable.

I know that electronic readers like the Kindle and Nook have replaced books while tablets have replaced newspapers. However there is something therapeutic about reading from something that doesn't require batteries. It is also nice to unfold a newspaper and spread it out on a table or ottoman as you can see much more at once than you can with even the largest of tablets.

Several years ago we stopped taking the daily paper and only subscribed to the one on Sunday. Truth be told, I like reading the comics. I'm not the only one as my youngest son used to call dibs on them when I was done. He is now living in Armenia but has asked that we forward him the Sunday comics on occasion. My wife is a bit more thorough with the Sunday paper. She likes to go through all of the ads in search of something interesting. Then she carefully reads each section of the paper paying more attention to certain articles and less to others. When she is done, she folds everything up and puts the paper in our recycle bin.

We are one of the few families I know that still subscribes to a physical newspaper. I think that is pretty sad as some of my fondest memories are from reading the Sunday newspaper when I was young. I enjoy and embrace technology as that is how I make my living. However sitting back on a Sunday evening and watching my wife enjoy reading makes it worth the small price we pay. If you haven't read a real newspaper in a while, spend a few quarters and pick one up. See if you don't feel a satisfaction you don't get from an electronic format. If you do, you may want to think about subscribing. Newspapers really aren't that expensive.

Apple, Google, and Microsoft

This evening was a monthly get together for friends from the office. We all met at a local restaurant and enjoyed catching up with former colleagues. One just happens to be working at Apple. There were several televisions located in the restaurant bar and so I kept catching glimpses of the football game going on in the background. While I enjoyed keeping up with the game, it was more interesting to watch the various commercials. They alternated between the Google Chrome book, the Apple iPhone 5S, and Microsoft's Surface tablet.

Naturally the conversation started discussing the various products in the advertisements. I talked about my hatred of the touchscreen fad that seems to be invading computers these days. One of my coworkers mentioned that I am a power user that has spent way too much time with a mouse or track pad and don't represent the masses. While I interact with my computer, most users simply retrieve information. I couldn't argue with that.

Next someone mentioned that one of my coworkers had a Microsoft tablet computer. One question I have had is if there are a large number of apps for the tablet. My coworker explained that he had the Pro model and so it was a real computer running Windows 8. Lesser version of the Microsoft tablet don't have many applications available to them and should be avoided. Everyone at the table seemed to agree with the comments. It also explained why Windows is embracing the the touchscreen interface so much.

The conversation ended with Apple. It was enlightening and my friend did not divulge any confidential information. However I don't want to go into too many details just in case I get my friend in trouble. Rest assured it was a good conversation and I was able to discuss some of my pet peeves with Apple products. I'm not sure it will do much good but it was nice to get that off my chest.

American Newspaper

I left my hotel room this morning to go get breakfast and was glad to see an American newspaper outside my door. I am in Japan and so it wasn't just laying on the floor like most hotels back in the States. It was in a clear plexiglass newspaper holder on the wall just outside the door. As I was coming back from breakfast I started looking at all of the other guests' newspapers. Some were Japanese while others were American. Then I noticed that there were one or two other nationalities represented as well.

When you check into a hotel outside the United States, the hotel asks to see your passport. They will generally make a copy of it before handing it back to you. The hotel also asks you for your home address and so they have a really good idea where you live. There is no need to ask where you are from or what preference you have for your morning newspaper because they already know based on information they already have.

What does this have to do with computers? Well your computer knows an awful lot about you. So do your other electronic devices. If you are watching a movie on your iPhone or tablet computer and walk into an empty room with a television, shouldn't the television take over displaying your movie? You may not want to watch on the TV, but it sure would be nice for your iPhone to at least ask. There are hundreds of other similar examples. If I was willing to spend countless hours downloading various pieces of software and even more hours configuring things, I could make some of them a reality. If only my devices already had the software installed and could discover other devices on their own, it would make my life much easier. I think it would for everyone.

Are You Better Off Now

It is election season and I try to avoid politics in my blog, but this is a question I keep hearing, "Are you better off today than you were 4 years ago?" One thing about technology is that it continues to evolve and so we should all be better off as time passes. The President of the United States could be a monkey with a dart board and we should all be better off with regards to our computers. So let's look back over the past 4 years and see how computer technology has improved.

When I look at my desk in my home office, I am much better off than I was 4 years ago. The biggest change is the advance in video monitor technology. I used to have a single 17-inch LCD monitor capable of displaying 1280x1024 pixels. Now I have 2 HDTV monitors on my desk. Both are seamlessly connected to my desktop computer and are capable of displaying 1920x1080 for a total size of 3840x1080 pixels. I don't know how I survived before.

Video monitors for my desktop are just the start. I also have a tablet computer. I actually have 2 tablet computers, both of which were given to me. I only keep 1 on my desk as the other one is kept upstairs in the bedroom. Most of the time I just use the tablet to play Pandora, but it is nice to be able to keep tabs on things when I leave the office without having to grab my laptop. The tablet is much lighter.

Speaking of laptops, I used to have a MacBook and now I have a MacBook Pro. The biggest difference there is that I now run a solid-state drive. They make great sense for a laptop because they are much more shock resistant. They are also a lot faster. My laptop boots in about the same amount of time as it takes me to count to 3. I'm still not sure about reliability, but my current drive is almost a year old and seems to be working great.

One final improvement worth mentioning is that we are starting to see more cloud technology. Sure some of it is just marketing. However we will start to see more services come to the cloud and life should improve because of it. Imagine walking into your house and having your digital camera automatically sync with your home network and upload your most recent photos to a staging area where you can sort them and share your favorites. We are almost there.

Technologically, we are all better off now than we were 4 years ago. Just don't let the politicians think they are responsible.

A Keyboard for my Tablet

Lately I have noticed that I have not been using either of my tablet computers for anything more than playing casual games or listening to Pandora. Yesterday I decided to go get a case for my Samsung tablet to see if that would spur me to use it more. So when I finished skiing, I got in the car and headed down to the local Best Buy store.

I wasn't sure if I should bring the tablet computer or just leave it home. Since I wanted to make sure everything fit nicely, I brought the tablet. It turns out, that wasn't really necessary. The Samsung GalaxyTab 10.1 is so popular, there were tons of accessories specifically made for it. That is important if you plan to use things like the built-in camera and so I looked at cases specially made for my tablet computer.

I looked at 3 different cases and finally decided on the most expensive one. All 3 cases were very similar in style and appearance. The only real difference was that one contained a Bluetooth keyboard. I played around a bit with the keyboard and was convinced I could touch-type on it without much difficulty. Given that it only increased the price by $10, I was sold.

I have had the keyboard for less than 24 hours and I have to say that it actually makes the tablet a much more usable tool. I wouldn't say that my tablet can now replace my laptop, but it does come close. Now we will see if I use my tablet for more than just entertainment.

The Power of the Keyboard

There were several days during my Christmas break where I meant to create a Blog entry but was upstairs and away from my computer. Rather than going back to my office, I pulled out one of my Android-based tablets and pontificated on the day's events. You can tell which days they were because the entries are significantly shorter than the others.

Don't get me wrong, I love using my tablets to look things up on the Internet or take short notes during meetings. They are just difficult to use to create a Blog entry. While your finger makes a great pointer, it makes a lousy substitute for a mouse when it comes to highlighting text. The on-screen keyboard found on any tablet is usable, but is no match for a real one. In the end it was just easier to use my laptop.

I have a friend that is wondering if he can replace his home computer with a tablet. Unfortunately I don't think either of the tablets I have are there yet. Perhaps I should spend some time at an electronics store and see if I can't get an external keyboard. I wonder if there is a way I can win one?

A Tale of Two Tablets

Back in September I received word that I had won a computer table from CompUSA. They had a contest where they were giving out a tablet a day. When I was notified about winning the tablet, I was dubious. However it arrived last week while I was in Japan and my family wasted no time opening the box and playing with it.

Several weeks ago, I borrowed a tablet from work and so now I have two tablet computers. One is the Sony S1 and the other is a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Both run the Android operating system and so it is interesting to have the two tablets side by side for comparison. You can get the same applications for both devices and so it is interesting to see just the differences in the hardware.

First, the Sony device is wedge-shaped, sort of like a thin 3-ring binder. At first I thought I would hate this ergonomic difference. The Samsung is more like the iPad and iPad2. While the Samsung is less bulky and easier to hold in my hand, I actually prefer the Sony. When I place the tablet on a desk or table, the slight tilt makes it much easier to read. It is also much easier to use with the on-screen keyboard. Point for Sony.

Second, there is a huge difference in speed. Using the two devices day after day, you notice that the Sony tablet is much faster than the Samsung. Even my kids notice the difference and have started to ask to play games on the Sony vs. the Samsung. Point 2 for Sony.

Third, the Samsung vibrates as a part of the user interface. When you type on the virtual keyboard, the device has a slight shudder that is very helpful in addition to the key-click sound both devices emit. I like this feature as I can turn off the sound and still have feedback when I am typing. Point for Samsung.

I really like both devices. It is also nice having two as one of the kids is always playing with one. It is not uncommon to go into my living room and see both tablets being used. Eventually I will have to give one of the tablets back and I am sure it will cause problems. Until then, I think you can't have too many tablet computers.

Tablet Computers

When I first graduated from College 20 years ago, several computer manufactures announced tablet computers. None of them sold very well and it seems the idea was shelved. Then Apple announced the iPad. It was a huge success and now it seems everyone has a tablet computer, including the company where I now work.

Last night I found myself coming up with reasons to purchase a tablet computer. I have to travel once a week and would love to use one on the plane. The problem is that while I can rationalize all of the cool projects that I can do, the tablet would really just get used for games or watching movies. So that has me wondering if I should just get a portable game unit. I already have a Sony PSP and it doesn't get used much any more.

No, the appeal of a tablet is that it can be used for more than just game playing. That is why the iPhone and other smart phones have been so successful. You always carry your phone with you and to have it do more than one thing. On vacation with your family but left your camera at the hotel? Use your phone's to take a picture. On a long flight and are tired of reading your book? Watch a movie on the small screen or play a game. Maybe instead of getting a tablet, I should just get a newer phone.